Lost opportunity

Wednesday night's 5-4, shootout loss to the New York Islanders at Honda Center was a game the Ducks should have won - plain and simple.

The Islanders were winless coming in, on the final stop of a season-opening, four-game road trip and playing for the second time in two nights. The Ducks out-shot New York 17-5 in the first period, 21-7 in the third and 50-24 for the game, and still lost. Isles goalie Mike Dunham deserves plenty of credit, but the Ducks deserve some blame, too. Not only did they fail to capitalize on enough of their scoring chances, but also surrendered three goals during a span of 1:46 early in the second period. Lapses like that will doom a team to defeat virtually every time. Even though the Ducks fought back to take a 4-3 lead in the third period, they couldn't hold it, and then lost in the shootout. Sound familiar? We saw plenty of that last season. Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere survived four of New York's first five shootout attempts, but it wasn't enough because only rookie Ryan Shannon converted for the Ducks. Chalk this one up to a learning experience. The Ducks certainly don't want to experience many more nights like that.

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